In recent months, intelligence officials in Washington have warned national law enforcement agencies that al-Qaeda terrorists have been spotted with members of MS-13 in El Salvador, prompting concerns the gang may be smuggling Islamic fundamentalist terrorists into the country. Law enforcement officials have long believed that MS-13 controls alien smuggling routes along Mexico.

The al-Qaeda connection has apparently prompted increased concern from the local Boston police and federal authorities, especially since Boston has served as a focal point for Islamic terrorist networks in the US: two of the hijacked planes on September 11th, departed from Boston's Logan Airport, and Raed Hijazi, "an al-Qaeda operative charged with training the suicide bombers in the attack on the USS Cole, lived and worked" in Boston while residing in the US.

The theory that Salvadoran criminals manage to smuggle people over the border was bolstered this month when two Boston men described as MS-13 leaders were spotted on the North Shore days before Christmas - a year after they were deported by Boston Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators for gang-related crimes.

One of the two men, Elmer ``Tiger'' Tejada, 24, who had been deported after being convicted of a slew of crimes, including attempted murder charges for hurling a machete at Chelsea cops, was busted in Lynn on New Year's Day. Tejada is described as ``an original MS-13 member'' from East Boston, sources said.

A manhunt has been launched for the second fugitive, who is in the country illegally, Boston police said.

Bostonians - and all Americans - need to ask why the US government deliberately tolerates this mass-penetration of the southern border, permitting violent criminals to take up residence in American cities and harm US citizens. It is high time that victims of crime committed by illegal aliens filed suit against the federal government and the Bush administration for failing to secure the border and enforce US immigration law. If the US is no longer willing to defend its borders, American society will crumble, morphing into an unrecognizable patchwork of chaos and crime.

Aside from the potential threat to national security, what else has the US government bestowed on its citizens through its negligent refusal to protect the border?

Among the most notorious local crimes attributed to MS-13 was the gang rape of two deaf girls, one 14, the other 17, in a Somerville park in 2002. Three MS-13 gang members were charged in the brutal rapes, during which one victim was knocked from her wheelchair before the assault.

And for this, Americans pay hefty income taxes to the federal government.